About Us

About Us

The Staff Team is led by Frazer Campbell as the Service Director. He is responsible for the day to day running of the organisation, basically, looking after the finances, staff rotas, service delivery and future planning. He is ably assisted by Sandra Tait in her role as Assistant Manager.

Frazer is into his third career having served in the Royal Navy and Police but he now enjoys working within the Third Sector. He is the registered Care Manager for the Housing Support Service.

Sandra has additional responsibilities as she is also a support worker within Blide Hoose. She brings more than 20 years of experience in working with people with lived experience of mental ill health. She started work at the Blide in housing support and continues to give one to one support to several people. Sandra is an excellent cook and organiser, so we rely heavily on her for organising our regular Open Days.

Housing Support is provided by Rosalind Spence and she has been in post for over 4 years. Rosalind previously worked as independent advocate supporting people with learning disabilities. She is also the coordinator for the Befriending service and has worked hard to build this service up. Rosalind trains volunteers to become befrienders and supervises the befriending partnerships.

Out and About Trips and the Drop-in are supported and coordinated by Sheena Leask, with many of the trips being planned by our members. Sheena has developed the drop-in to include many activities and groups, such as Crafts, knit and natter, which are very popular. Recently she took responsibility to expand the drop-in to Stromness and St. Margaret’s Hope so that more people could access Blide services. Sheena loves projects and this culminated in 2016 with the Hoy Woodland Project that mapped areas of woodland on the island of Hoy and allowed people to show their creativity through photography, poetry and crafts.

David Sneesby, works as the Blide’s Garden Adviser. David was heavily involved with the Hoy Woodland Project that saw him lead the team of volunteers in planting over 500 trees in White Glen. David and a team of Blide Hoose members look after the Blide garden but also engage in other projects, growing vegetables for use in the Blide café and selling bedding plants alongside our partners at St. Colms. In 2016 they worked on building a Bird hide at the St. Andrews Community Centre and developed the landscape around it.

Anne Stevenson is a vital member of the team providing administration support for the whole organisation. Anne works alongside Frazer to keep the accounts in order. She is keen to support people who come to the Blide and will help them with some tasks and with open days. She helped organise staff and members to support a fashion show being held to raise money for the Blide.

People need a healthy diet and the Blide provides a nutritious lunch time meal. Leigh Gould is our chef and brings a wealth of experience of working in the catering industry. Leigh works alongside members to teach them about nutrition, preparing and presenting food. He is keen to build our outside catering business that brings in much needed money to support our other services.

In response to suggestions from our members and members of the public the Blide recruited Lesley-Anne Millar to become our first evening receptionist. This extends the opening hours for the drop-in so that people can call in after work and catch up over a cuppa. Lesley-Anne has taken to her job with enthusiasm and is looking for ways to attract more people to make use of the drop-in during the week. She also organises the appointments for our counselling service, Time to Talk provided by Celia Clark Counselling. Lesley-Anne is also working with our Peer Support Service Volunteers to provide practical support for people returning from Royal Cornhill Hospital.

David Swales ensures that the drop-in is ready each weekend to receive anyone who comes in. David, is there to refer people to support workers in the Blide or to sign post them to other services. David enjoys playing chess and welcomes any challenger to come and play a game at the weekend. He is always looking for ways to encourage people to make use of the drop-in, so if you have any ideas get in touch with him.

Food at the weekends is just as important as food during the week! Orkney Blide Trust decided to provide a Temporary Employment Placement to Blide Hoose so that when a member is ready they can gain work experience. This has proved very popular and Emma Blanchard, as the current post holder has done well in building up a strong customer base. The weekend drop-in has seen numbers rise since she started.